No Country for Old Men

Trailer:

— Alan

I don’t think it’s McCarthy’s best novel by a long shot, but it is probably the most filmable. Definitely looking forward to this.

How was the film version of All the Pretty Horses?

— Alan

Looks like the Coen Brothers are returning to their Blood Simple, Miller’s Crossing days. Looks pretty awesome.

There’s some clips with french subtitles over here:

“Extrait #2” is definitely worth watching.

Yeah looks like this could be a tremendous return to form for the Coens. They’re still pretty much the only film-makers that I’ll go see whatever they do without question…

The film version of All the Pretty Horses was pretty dire. “Let’s take an elegiac novel about the death of the American West and the corresponding death of a certain perception of American manhood and make it a shallow romantic drama. As long as we throw big names into the lead roles, we’ll make millions!” Blah.

Me too. I’d just about given up on them after Ladykillers, but I’ll definitely catch this one.

I’m in.

I’ll forgive them any number of failures as long as they get another success every so often.

Why is everybody so down on The Ladykillers? That was literally the only performance from Tom Hanks I’ve enjoyed since… Jesus, I’m not even sure. Turner & Hooch, maybe.

Granted, it’s not as good as the original, but it’s miles ahead of Intolerable Cruelty.

Yeah Intolerable Cruelty is really their only total misfire. It’s the only Coens movie that doesn’t FEEL like it was directed by the Coens, except in maybe a couple of scenes. Any romcom hack could have directed it.

I agree about The Ladykillers - it was a disappointment but one thing the Coens do brilliantly is get really surprising and different performances out of actors - look what Clooney did in O Brother at a time when everyone was complaining about him being the same in every movie. Ditto Tom Hanks in Ladykillers - a really great arch, melodramatic villainous performance that I have a hard time imagining many other directors getting out of him.

Hanks was enjoyable in Ladykillers, and Clooney and (especially) the music were high points of O Brother. Otherwise I found those flicks tremendously disappointing. Intolerable Cruelty, I didn’t find loveable or hateable … or memorable at all I guess.

Admittedly, I am so intensely fond of Miller’s Crossing and Raising Arizona that I may be irrationally biased against their later, post-Lebowski movies. I need to see “The Man Who Wasn’t There” again; I remember being certain it wasn’t as great as a Billy-Bob-Thornton-barber-noir from the Coens should be, but it might be decent on its own merits anyway.

That video is not working. Several links to it in several places say there is no video, and on Variety’s own page, it plays for about 3 seconds (but a variable length each time) and then declares it over. Hopefully it will unfuck itself later.

As far as Coen movies go, I’d have to say The Man Who Wasn’t There was my least favorite and the only one I didn’t really like. It didn’t seem to have an overarching message beyond “this guy’s life sucks donkey balls” and Thornton had absolutely zero depth of character. I realize that was kind of the point, but I didn’t think it worked very well.

Both The Ladykillers and Intolerable Cruelty I found to be merely OK. The first scene with Bernie Mac in Intolerable Cruelty was fucking brilliant (“I’m gonna NAIL yo ass!”), and Clooney was excellent, as he always is in their movies. The plot was a bit weak though. Also, I felt that the Hanks role in Ladykillers would have been much better in just about any other actor’s hands. In particular, Clooney or John Goodman could have nailed it. Overall the movie was disappointing but it had its moments.

For me, the best is The Big Lebowski, indisputably. Barton Fink, Miller’s Crossing, and O Brother Where Art Thou are also superlative.

You know what? Fuck it. It’s ranked list time!

The Big Lebowski

Barton Fink
O Brother Where Art Thou
Miller’s Crossing

The Hudsucker Proxy
Raising Arizona
Fargo

Intolerable Cruelty
Blood Simple
The Ladykillers

The Man Who Wasn’t There

The ones that are grouped together are close in quality and rankings could shift depending on my mood and how recently I’ve seen them.

Fargo, Fargo, Fargo. Why, oh why couldn’t that movie be like 2 hours. I could have really loved that movie, but instead I am unable to sit through it again. I have no trouble acknowledging it as a great film, just nothing I want to watch over unlike Lebowski, Arizona, or even the Ladykillers. O brother is in the same category of movies I just have trouble watching again, although oddly I haven’t had that problem with Intolerable Cruelty or Man Who Wasn’t There, despite these movies not being all that great.

Blood Simple is unwatchable unless you have never seen a Coen film. I am eager to see this new one, though.

I’ll play!

Miller’s Crossing
The Big Lebowski
Raising Arizona
Fargo
Barton Fink
The Hudsucker Proxy
O Brother Where Art Thou
The Man Who Wasn’t There
Blood Simple
The Ladykillers

Never saw Intolerable Cruelty

I was agreeing with that until I realized that, in the tangle of negatives, it meant the exact opposite of what I initially read. My position on it was that it would have been terrible except that it was one of the last few that I saw and I could appreciate its themes as it related to their later movies. Is that what you meant? If you meant the opposite, please explain. My curiosity is up now.

You guys are doing the game all wrong! You simply name your favorite Coen brothers film. No need to do a long list, because whether you liked Hudsucker Proxy better than Ladykillers doesn’t matter as much that you chose Raising Arizona over Miller’s Crossing.

My pick varies from day to day. Most days it’s a choice between The Man Who Wasn’t There and Barton Fink, usually depending on which one I’d seen most recently. But today, it’s Big Lebowski.

No Country for Old Men is an odd book. It’s almost like McCarthy was writing something specifically to be adapted. Until the end, it’s very nearly a standard thriller. Almost even an airport novel, albeit one written by a man with a powerful love of words.

I’m keenly curious to see what the Coen brothers do with it, although I’m not sure how I feel about Josh Brolin playing the lead. Really? Josh Brolin? Okay, Joel and Ethan. I trust you guys.

-Tom

The Big Lebowski is the greatest movie ever.

That was Cedric the Entertainer, not Bernie Mac.

This oughta work:

— Alan

Turns out that stupid proprietary player it’s using doesn’t like this computer. I watched it on another machine and I was profoundly unimpressed. Not with the Coen brothers or the movie, mind you, but more with the people who put the trailer together and in the process made it look like every generic suspense movie ever. Given their track record, I’m confident it will be better than that looked.

Whoops. Must have been thinking of Ocean’s Eleven.